Practice Areas

Energy

Industries

Energy, Utilities and Renewables

Julia Weller

Partner

Julia has worked in electricity and natural gas regulation and transactions for over 25 years. She currently focuses on promotion of investment in clean energy and energy efficiency projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the countries of South East Europe.

She has worked on a wide variety of matters related to investment in energy infrastructure and in regulation of electricity production, distribution, and transmission, in Albania, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, France, Georgia, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Mongolia, Romania, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Ukraine.

In the U.S., she worked for many years on regulation of natural gas pipelines, representing local distribution companies, marketers and gas-fired generators.

Julia advises emerging market governments, private investors, international financial institutions, electricity transmission system operators, and electricity market operators in the following areas:

public-private partnerships in energy infrastructure projects,
privatization of state-owned energy sector asses,
energy sector restructuring,
renewable energy development,
energy legislation,
wholesale electricity market design, and
regulatory capacity building.

Recent Experience

Julia is currently working in:

Albania under a USAID-funded project on a draft Power Sector Law and discussions with the Energy Community Secretariat regarding amendments to the Albanian Market Design;
Central and Eastern Europe leading a legal review of sector policies addressing climate change and promoting the transition to low carbon economies
Georgia on issues related to promotion of private investment in the development of small and medium hydropower projects for export of power to Turkey and other neighboring countries;
Ukraine on compliance of Ukrainian laws with the Protocol on Accession of Ukraine to the energy Community; reviewing electricity sector legal acts and advising on drafting of amendments to bring laws in line with those of European Union Directives;
Central Asia on creation of regional electricity and gas markets to encourage coordination of cross-border interconnection investments;
Kyrgyzstan on project documents and other contract issues related to public-private partnership for high-voltage transmission line linking the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan

Honors & Distinctions

Julia is Chair of the Energy Bar Association's International Energy and Transactions Committee and has held positions as Board Member of the Women's Council on Energy and the Environment and the District of Columbia Women's Bar Association.

Julia has an AV® Preeminent™ rating in Martindale-Hubbell and her name is listed in the summer edition of Arrive Magazine (distributed on Amtrak trains) as one of the AV-rated women lawyers practicing in the Boston to Washington D.C. corridor.